using my head

Well, at the January NetTuesday I managed to build a pretty decent-looking website live, in 33 minutes. The lovely Amy from NetSquared has uploaded some video of the presentation, and the videos of the actual website build will be coming soon, I’m told. But in the meantime, you can have a look at the slides from my presentation about how web apps have fundamentally changed the web design industry and web project lifecycles. Some linkies for you:

- Web design before web applications (video)
- Web design after web applications (video)
- View the presentation (slides)

I was really thrilled to see the Meetup attendees gave me a 5 out of 5 rating for the presentation, and I hope they will find the info and tips to be useful. It’s a lot to cover in an hour (both theory & practice), so the slides may be a very broad generalisation, but I do think the concept holds true: making websites today bears little resemblance to the way we used to build them even just a few years ago.

I think the really interesting thing to me is how I now tend to input content first, and do design second. This is completely the opposite of how we used to do things. But it’s a great tip when working with content management systems like WordPress or Squarespace, because it means you can create a design that you know will work with the type of content you have. So often we as designers would mock up something that looked beautiful with a couple of paragraphs of ‘lorem ipsum’, only to find that the design didn’t work so well with loads of text and several photos, which is what the client needed to have on the page. If you’re a designer, give it a try on your next project.

Next Tuesday I will be speaking about how you can create professional-looking websites quickly, at low cost and with high quality. Sounds impossible? Not anymore. The latest breed of web-based applications and tools have totally revolutionised the web industry, and next week I will be sharing my experience of working with these tools.

I will also do a live demo of Squarespace, showing just how easy and quickly you can put together a great little website. In fact, I am hoping to be able to create a full website within the 55minute session, so I’m setting myself a big target! If you are in London next Tuesday and want to see how it’s done, learn more about to the tools out there, hear my tips and pitfalls to avoid, then pop on over to NetSquared and sign up. Everyone is welcome so please do stop by!

Today marks the launch of my latest Squarespace website: a charity website for the Confectioner’s Benevolvent Fund (aka Sweet Charity). As they are a small UK charity, the challenge on this project was to create a great looking and functioning site on a tight budget, complete with multiple author/editor roles, embedded Flash and an event calendar. The fun part was using their brand name and industry in a creative way to form part of the design. The result of this is the bag of sweets that pours onto the pages, with different types and formations of sweets representing the different page contents conceptually. The client loves the concept so much that they will be using it on their offline marketing material, which makes us both happy.

We’ll be working together in 2010 incorporating the new look into their e-mail newsletters, and I will also be advising them on how they can use some of the latest gen online tools and web apps to streamline their internal workflow, allowing staff more time to focus on the important things: fundraising and helping people who need their assistance. It’s within organisations like Sweet Charity that I feel these web apps stand to make the biggest difference: they are free or low-cost, quick to implement and learn, and they can replace manual or time-consuming activities, usually without impacting on other internal technologies. In a busy charity, there’s never enough time to do things, so anything that can save time or make people’s jobs easier is a godsend. And there’s nothing I enjoy more than making people’s work lives a little nicer.

Woohoo – how exciting. Those nice people over at Imagine Publishing have put together a nifty guide called the Blogger’s Handbook, which covers all the major blogging platforms, advice on setting up and designing blogs, and info about how to make blogging work for you. And yours truly is featured on page 114 in their feature on Squarespace.

It sure is nice to be recognised out of the millions of bloggers/designer-developers out there. And speaking of Squarespace, I have set up a showcase of my Squarespace projects, so hop on over to UsingMyHead on Squarespace if you fancy learning a bit more.

Recently clients & enquirers have been asking about which platform is better – WordPress or Squarespace – so I thought it might be helpful to post a comparison here. This is based on my own experience in using, designing for and administering websites and blogs on both platforms: your mileage may vary. But here’s how I see it…

NOTE: All comparisons and info below relate to Wordpress.org, which is the installed version that you download and install on your own hosting. I am not including Wordpress.com in this comparison, which is the hosted version of WordPress that you sign up / subscribe to. This comparison is for professionals and small businesses, and I don’t feel that WordPress.com is the right choice for this purpose.

Similarities between WordPress & Squarespace

There are a number of similar characteristics and functions of the two products; here’s a few of the most relevant ones. Both:

• Can be used for creating and managing blogs or a variety of different types of website
• Are cost-effective, starting at a few pounds per month for hosting/subscription
• Allow you to use your own domain name (instead of something like http://yourdomain.wordpress.com )
• Allow non-technical people to update the website text/content without much training
• Offer a lot of visual design flexibility, in which an experienced designer/developer (like me) can create polished, professional websites quickly ; however, there are some design limitations with both systems
• Use template-based designs that can be easily changed, customised or tweaked in future without affecting the content
• Have a number of search-engine-friendly elements built into the way the pages/sites are structured
• Offer the ability to have multiple authors/editors with different levels of editing permission
• Have the capability to use/embed Flash, video or other media within the site
• Have their own quirks – things that don’t quite make sense – but are easily worked around once you figure it out

So what are the main differences?

About Squarespace

Squarespace is a full-featured hosted content management system (CMS) designed for websites and blogs.  Users pay a monthly subscription fee to Squarespace in return for hosting the site and access to the content management system. You don’t download anything and you don’t need to find hosting: as soon as you sign up online, you can get started working on your site.

Squarespace Pros:

• The subscription fee includes full technical support from Squarespace. Response times have been quick in the past: anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours.
• Cost effective: the lower level subscription rates are comparable to the cost of standard web hosting, with a lot more included.
• Very intuitive content management system: incredibly user-friendly (the best I have seen at this price point). It is clear that Squarespace developers focus a lot on usability.
• Offers scope for additional functionality (eg custom forms, private client pages) through built-in features & modules that are easy to set up, usually even by non-technical people. These modules are supported by Squarespace’s tech support in case of any problems.
• Basic website statistics are built-in, and conveniently accessed through the same login used for editing the site.
• All the infrastructure is managed by Squarespace. This means future product upgrades are applied automatically by Squarespace, so you don’t need to install anything or worry about whether you are using the latest version (you always are).
• Everything’s in one place: if something goes wrong, you know it’s Squarespace. With WordPress, you sometimes can’t easily tell whether it’s a WordPress problem or a problem with your hosting provider, making troubleshooting take longer.

Squarespace Cons:

• As a fully-hosted solution, you cannot shop around for better hosting deals: you are tied in to Squarespace’s hosting and prices.
• Some added features are only available through higher monthly fee subscription packages.
• Some features cannot be easily customised without a designer/developer’s help (custom coding).
• The statistics that come built into Squarespace are not as detailed as those from Google Analytics or other web analytics tools (note: you can install Google Analytics or other on Squarespace).
• Squarespace is not a huge company with thousands of developers, so product improvements and enhancements are not released as often as with bigger CMS products, nor as often as new plugins for WordPress become available.

About WordPress

WordPress is an open source blogging platform that can be adapted for use as both a standard website CMS and/or blog.  You need a suitable hosting provider and a downloaded version of WordPress to get started. Once this is installed, you login to your WordPress admin panel to work on the site.

WordPress Pros:

• WordPress is available free of charge, without having to pay a license fee or subscription, so the only cost related to purchase is the cost of web hosting. This means you can shop around for the best hosting deal, or move hosts in future should you choose to.
• WordPress is one of the world’s most-used and well-supported blog CMS platforms; it has an active support community and a development roadmap, with frequent upgrades that constantly improve functionality and security. Out of all the open source blog CMS platforms, it’s the one I recommend most.
• A huge range of 3rd party plugins is available to expand the functionality of WordPress. The variety of plugins available is far greater than the variety of modules available for expanding Squarespace. Plugins include website analytics/ statistics through Google Analytics (just one example).
• The fact that it is open source (rather than commercial) appeals to some clients from an ethical perspective. This means that you are free to use the product without many restrictions of commercial software, and are supporting the open source ideology.

WordPress Cons:

• The fact that it is open source (rather than commercial) is a barrier/turn-off to some clients. They want the assurances that come with a commercial organisation developing and taking responsibility for the product. They want to be able to hold someone accountable, and be able to contact someone whose job it is to respond, in case of any problem.
• Although WordPress is a popular platform, it is reliant on the pool of open-source developers for all product improvements and bug-fixes, who do this free of charge, primarily in their free time. Therefore, it can sometimes take a while for bugs to be fixed.
• The user interface for administering and editing is a bit less intuitive than Squarespace, and not as user-friendly.
• Most added features are only available as 3rd-party plugins or widgets: this means they are not supported by WordPress, and can sometimes cause compatibility issues when the WordPress platform is upgraded. And sometimes they are just plain rubbish, as there is no quality-control process. Anyone can develop and release a plugin/widget, so there’s a high chaff-to-wheat ratio.
• Because WordPress is an installed application, someone must manually upgrade the product whenever a new version is released. Failure to upgrade can cause security risks, but upgrading can create compatibility issues (see above).

So which is better?

There is no right or wrong answer: the best tool will depend on your own preference, and whether you have someone you can trust to help design/develop/administer/train on that particular platform. Because as easy as they both are to use, it can really help to have someone who knows what they are doing to work with you, at least in the beginning.

I’m back in the UK after my long trip back to the States, and while I was away, my latest Squarespace site went live: IT recruitment and consulting service provider Populo. This time I had the pleasure of working with Katrina Dixon, aka The Marketing Lady, who is working with Populo on their marketing. It was great to have a partner on the project, and I think the results are a polished site that promotes and explains Populo’s offering in a really appealing and engaging way. I hope I have the opportunity to work with other marketeers this way in future.

This project was particularly interesting for me because the client wanted to use Squarespace in a somewhat unconventional way: the blogging functionality has been adapted to act as a job listing tool. While it may not provide all the bells and whistles of a fully-featured job engine, it certainly does what it needs to, and demonstrates that with a little creative thinking, web platforms such as Squarespace or Wordpress can be adapted to work for almost any type of business or website.

Blogging functionality can be used to house any information that needs to be presented chronologically and/or categorised, whether it’s news, events, job postings, recipes or properties for sale – yet the word ‘blog’ has very specific connotations to most non-web-techies. I often wonder if there needs to be a rebrand of products such as Squarespace and WordPress, who are known primarily as ‘blogging’ platforms, because it’s sometimes difficult to get past the associations with this word when recommending these products to clients. Maybe in future there will be some clever term that sums up the capabilities of blog tools without the baggage of that word.

The latest launch in my increasingly long string of Squarespace websites is www.vandervord.com – a wedding photography website.

In this case, the client already had a website that was built years ago, and it really needed a fresh look. But the real frustration for the client was having to go through a middle-man to update his online portfolio. As a sole trader working in the current financial climate, he also needed to save money wherever possible, and it just didn’t make financial sense to have to pay someone every time he wanted to add a new photo or update his photography packages. The great news for him is that Squarespace costs about the same as web hosting alone, and once the initial design/build is out of the way, there are no additional costs for him moving forward. Now he can update the site whenever he wants – without having to worry about whether adding or changing something will affect the bottom line.

As usual, Squarespace’s easy-to-use interface was a big hit, especially for this client who didn’t want to have to learn anything complicated just to change a word or photo here & there. And the really fantastic news is that Squarespace’s search-engine-friendly design (and my advice on SEO) means that he’s already seen an increase in enquiries coming via Google, so I reckon the project will more than pay for itself in the first booking alone. Anything I can do to boost the business prospects for small businesses really makes me smile, so I am thrilled with the results on this one so far… and so is the client, which is nice. In fact, he liked the web designs so much, I have also designed business cards and stationery to match the shiny new look. So a big ‘yay’ all around I think!

I seem to be doing a lot of Squarespace sites these days; in fact, yesterday we launched another one: www.cytoxgroup.com

I’m quite excited to be working with this client, as they are doing some really mindblowing work on Alzheimer’s disease. They have discovered some rather groovy things about brain cells and the cell cycle, and are working on ways of diagnosing and treating this disease BEFORE the symptoms start showing. Wow. How cool is that?

The website is chock full of science-y things I don’t quite understand, but I know they are lovely people doing great work at the cutting edge of their industry. It’s been another quick-turnaround project for me, with the whole thing being built and populated within about 8 working days. Once again, like my Festinho clients, they already had a website but couldn’t make changes, and they really wanted to be able to control the content themselves. They liked the sound of Squarespace and the speed at which I could translate their existing site into the Squarespace system, so whizz-bang* and we were done. I quite like doing these quick problem-solver projects, as both the client and I get nearly instant gratification in seeing the results.

We’re hoping to work together on another new site in future, as well as some rebranding, but for now I’m pleased as punch to be helping these guys get their message out online.

* Not the official technical term for design, build and content population of a website… but seems to be my slogan of the moment

It has been a super-busy month, and I’ve been whirling like a dervish. But the great news is I’ve just completed another Squarespace website, this time for an amazing event and set design company: Vivid Design Works. Caroline, Vivid’s managing director, wanted an online showcase for their work in designing sets, interiors and events, so I was thrilled to work with such a creative company, which meant I would get to exercise some real creativity in the design. The web design needed to be understated yet bold – if you can have such a thing – to reflect the company spirit of vivacity, but still allow the images of their work to stand out.

The winning concept was to have the website designed as though you were looking down at one of the Vivid designers’ desks, with some of the elements they might have there: scraps of paper, a sketchbook, masking tape, slides and photos from a mood board. I really like the end result, and feel the dark grey sets off the client images nicely, with the red accents adding the right amount of Vivid punch. Have a look for yourself and let me know what you think

This is my 7th Squarespace website to go live in 6 months, and  I must say I am really pleased with the speed at which I can deliver polished, custom websites to my clients. I can’t imagine having been able to deliver this quantity – and quality – of sites with all the features in the same amount of time using any other system. So far, all clients have fallen in love with the ease at which they can edit their websites, and we are both impressed with the sophistication and broad feature set that you get, for around the same price as regular web hosting that comes without a CMS.

Naturally, there are some limitations and things that Squarespace could do better… if I can find time to breathe I will try to summarise them in another post. But overall, I am pleased as punch – and in fact I’ve got to get back to work on yet another Squarespace site due to launch next week. Whew!

When the lovely people at Festinho got in touch, they needed to get a website live within a few days. Their existing site had been mostly designed and built already, but because it was created as a static HTML site, they couldn’t edit the content themselves. And before the site could go live, they needed to make some content changes. As Festinho is a charity festival, they rely on volunteers to do everything, so they needed something that key volunteers could access and edit easily without much training, so they didn’t need to rely on others or pay someone to edit things for them.

It’s a great cause, so I was happy to help out, and because Squarespace makes it so easy to design, build, and edit a website, it seemed the right tool to use. They already had a visual design, so I was able to translate this into a working ‘empty shell’ website in the Squarespace content management system within 24 hours. Within 96 hours, they had a fully-functioning website with all 43 pages of content in place, including blog, photo galleries, and contact form. Within 98 hours they had been trained on how to edit the site through the simple Squarespace CMS.

We’re still finetuning a few things, but the great news is that we were able to launch before their deadline – how often does that happen, especially when the deadline is less than a week?! Have a look at www.festinho.com and while you’re there, why not get yourself a ticket to the festival? It’s a magical weekend in the countryside, with all proceeds going to support Brazil’s needy children.